The Trump administration on Wednesday lost a bid to lift a federal judge's order temporarily blocking the U.S. Education Department f rom l aying off about half of its more than 4,000 employees.

The administration had asked the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston to lift the preliminary injunction issued by a Massachusetts District Court judge that stayed the large "reduction in force" at the department announced by Education Secretary Linda McMahon in March.

A three-judge panel on that appeals court rejected that effort Wednesday in a 26-page decision.

The Trump administration could ask the Supreme Court to lift the order.

But if the injunction remains in place, the Education Department would be blocked from drastically cutting its workforce as lawsuits challenging th

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